Katrina+Poole


 * SUMMARY: Katrina Poole, age 16, died December 6, 1988 after an abortion performed in Jacksonville, FL. **

Katrina Phalice Poole was conflicted that winter of 1988. She loved her boyfriend, she wanted to have her baby. But the 16-year-old was so young, excelling in English classes at Raines High School in Tampa Bay, Florida.

She had told some of her friends about the pregnancy. Some tried to talk her into following her heart and keeping her baby. Others supported her concerns that she was too young.

On December 5, Katrina left school early. Her mother brought her to a Jacksonville doctor's office for her 1:00 abortion appointment and stayed with her through the procedure, then took her straight home.

That evening, Katrina kissed her mother goodnight and went to bed. She was dead by morning. During the abortion, the doctor had poked holes in Katrina's uterus and cervix. The bleeding was hidden. Katrina had bled out.

On December 6, the principal announced Katrina's death over the schools PA system. Many students were overwhelmed with shock and grief and had to go home.

Supporters of legalized abortion would argue that though Katrina's death was indeed tragic, there would be more such tragic deaths were it not for the lifesaving effects of legalization. Is that assertion true? Look for yourself at the numbers:

During the 1940s, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality from abortion. The death toll fell from 1,407 in 1940, to 744 in 1945, to 263 in 1950. The graph below, showing illegal abortion deaths in purple and legal deaths in orange, shows the number of abortion deaths in the US each year from 1940 through 2003. The first state to legalize abortion-on-demand was New York in 1970. The Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973 struck down all the laws in the US criminalizing abortion. Would you conclude that legalization is what we have to thank for the fact that abortion deaths are not as commonplace now as they were in the 1930s? Or do you think there were other factors that did the job, and abortion advocates just claimed credit? Explore the question more [|here].

Source:
 * "Hard Lessons: The deaths of three students taught their friends about life," //Tampa Bay Times/St. Petersburg Times //, Feb. 8, 1989

Life Dynamics also lists the following sources on their "Blackmun Wall of legal abortion deaths:: Florida Death Certificate No. 88-123938; Jacksonville, Florida Medical Examiner's Report # 88-1392

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